We won like it was taking candy from a defenseless baby. I could tell in the faces of some of the guys that they also struggled to believe how incredible that game had been. As if each guy was the cog in a machine that worked with precision. I didn't delude myself into thinking my little speech could take the credit, but I did think it fueled the boys. And my shit eating grin proved how satisfied I was with them.

Riding such high, I thought it was perfect timing to get home and write my first college application. Once I started it I couldn't stop until it was done and submitted. And when I realized the time I thought there was no point in napping for an hour just to have to get up and get ready for school.

Dad found me in the kitchen having my second cup of coffee.

"I'm making eggs, bacon and toast," I said. His eyebrows went up and he blinked.

"You won't hear me complain but color me shocked."

"Let's just say I'm in a party mood." I stood up from the chair and put on an apron. Maybe I'd make the eggs like Barbara did, with chopped tomatoes and onions. "If we keep winning like this I'm going to be so pumped up I might make thanksgiving dinner by myself."

He laughed. "Now that's some real motivation right there."

I set out the pots and pans and fished in the fridge for the right ingredients. Dad poured himself a cup of coffee and sat on the counter, watching me. After a while I put my hands on my hips. "What?"

Dad gave a little smile. "You're growing up, Peyton. You have your own hopes and dreams and I wasn't ready to accept that when you needed it. I'm sorry."

"Dad," I said, sighing. "You didn't call me honey bunny."

"Get to working, honey bunny. I'm starving."

I rolled my eyes and turned back to focus on the prepping. This day couldn't get any better already.

"I have a new mission for you," he said all of a sudden, proving me wrong. "I talked with the Principal, and he agrees that since the team's doing so well we deserve some extra support."

As I chopped the tomatoes I asked, "What kind?"

"He'll let us borrow a school bus and driver for a boot camp training weekend."

"No way!"

He nodded. "Way. We'll have to gather funds for the gas, food and lodging. I think I can fix the lodging part with my buddy Joe in Lake Apopka. You know he has these cabins for rent and I could pull in a favor."

I was floored. "That would be so amazing." Then I paused, my demeanor shifting towards a bit more hesitation. "Wait, I can come, right? You're not going to get all caveman about a girl surrounded by boys, yada yada."

He rolled his eyes. "Of course you can come, but only bunking with me."

"Deal." We shook hands, just so that he remembered later when he wanted to back pedal. "Okay, so what do you want me to do? Come up with a training plan?"

"Right now, what I need help with is the fundraising."

"Okay." I thought about this. It had to be done in a way that the entire team got involved. "When do we want to do this?"

He rubbed his neck. "Well, that's the thing. The school bus is only available not this weekend but the next. So whatever we do to gather funds has to be done this weekend."

I cursed aloud. "I'll think of something."

Mom eventually came downstairs, lured by the scent of bacon. We had breakfast and my head was already churning. I asked Ellen to come and pick me up for school, because I felt like I could drive fine then but maybe not so much by the end of the day. On the way to school I told her about this, and although she was super excited that this was happening while she was gathering material for her article, she proved no help when she couldn't come up with profitable ideas. I just didn't think a bake sale was going to get us where we needed to be.

During lunch break I huddled with her, Chris, Anthony and Santiago.

"How about this," Chris said, proving why he was the voice of reason with his next words. "Why don't we come up with a budget first, to see how much we have to collect. That may give us a good hint about what kind of thing we could promote in less than a week and do this weekend."

"It sounds bleak when you put it that way," I muttered.

He pulled out a folder and flipped to a blank page. We started by the gas because that was easy with the help of Google. Then we moved on to the big problem, food and drink. We came up with a number that made us all curse.

"What if we just tell everybody to bring their own food?" Anthony asked.

I smacked my forehead for effect. "That's a good idea — except no one would come."

"I wouldn't discard it," Santiago chimed in as he sipped from his coke. "We could budget for only breakfast, lunch and dinner instead and have everybody bring their own snacks. It'd same some costs."

When we looked at the numbers that way it seemed more manageable. I was still scratching my head on how to get there, though, when Ellen stood up suddenly and called out. "Gigi!"

I looked on in a cross between confusion and horror as Gigi and half of the cheerleaders table turned to us. The girl smiled and stood up, leaving her crew to join us. The big shocker was that the queen bee decided to check out for herself what the deal was. She deftly sat next to Santi.

"What's going on over here?" she asked.

Gigi sat next to Ellen and gave her a side hug. "What's up, girl?"

I blinked. They'd surely gotten close as of late. I guessed it was all that boy talk they kept having.

Ellen looked at both of them. "Okay, you guys are experts at this. We need to come up with a way to raise funds for a training camp for the baseball team."

Queen bee rolled her eyes. "Easy, do a car wash."

We all, myself included, ooh'ed at the suggestion. Anthony shook his head. "Why didn't we think of that?"

Chris huffed out a breath. "Yeah but who's gonna come get their car washed by a bunch of dudes?"

Jessica gave him a pitying look. "Um, a lot of girls if you're all shirtless."

"Don't you think we could help, too?" Gigi told her. "I mean, if they keep winning like this and go to the big game we'll get to participate with our squad. Win-win."

The cogs in Jessica's brain started to move. It was almost fascinating. She gave Santi a glance that was nowhere near PG rated. "I guess we could, it might be fun." She all but purred the last word. I had to hold back a smile when all he did was keep eating.

Gigi jumped a little, now suddenly excited. "Okay, when's this going down?"

"This weekend," I said.

She gasped. "But all my swimsuits are so last season."

I struggled with the whiplash effect of that topic change. Like, who cared?

Also, wait. Swimsuits?

I asked this aloud and she said, "Duh, it's a car wash. There's gonna be water and soap. It's not like you can wash cars all day in jeans and boots."

I felt a cold chill travel down my spine when Jessica propped her chin with her hand and zeroed in on me with a predatory eye glint. "That's a good point, Gee. I know that not all of us have the right equipment for an event like this." She stretched her hand out to pat mine in the most condescending way. "We should go shopping together, today."

I was totally stunned by the fact that Gigi's nickname was Gee. All along I'd been thinking that Gigi was her nickname and that maybe she had a full name like Georgina or something. What kind of name was Gigi?

And then the rest of her words registered with me.

"What?"

Ellen's eyes positively glowed. "That is a great idea. I'm in."

"I'm not in." I backed away from the table a little. I hated that all of them were looking at me as if I were the crazy one.

Santiago, the bastard, put on the most fake look of innocence on his face. "You mean you won't wash cars with us? So much for a team spirit."

I snorted. "I will, but I'm not going to wear an itty bitty bikini. This still has to be a family type of event, or something."

"Why not?" Jessica asked. "Afraid of showing some skin?"

My intent to glare got off railed by Gigi quickly chiming in, "Besides, we've done this kind of thing before, in bikinis, and the school hasn't complained. So it should be fine for everybody to show some skin. This is Florida in the 21st century, if cheerleaders can strut their stuff baseball boys can too."

I was so not expecting that twist of feminism coming from her. And so I found myself carried away and in a car with Gigi, Jessica and Ellen off to the mall after school. Dad had kept practice today too short for my taste, and hadn't allowed me to buy time for myself to get out of this mess.

"I'm really tired, I barely got any sleep last night." A yawn came right on cue. "I think I should just head home and sleep."

"Oh, please," Jessica said as she turned around form the passenger's seat. "You really don't think you can attract customers in a t-shirt and shorts, or even that atrocious one piece you took to the beach the other time, do you?"

I just stared at her. "Why does everything that come out of your mouth have to sound like venom?"

Gigi giggled as she drove. "Some people call it tough love."

I started, "I call it being a bi-"

"I don't know about you guys but I'm so excited for this," Ellen said rapidly, cutting me off as I was about to wage WWIII. "I can't believe your dad convinced the Principal to do this, that is so cool."

I was not used to my dad and the word cool being in the same sentence but I had to admit, he'd nailed this one. "You're not alone, my friend."

"This will bring such great publicity to the school," Gigi said.

"Speaking of," I said as I saw the Starbucks sign approaching. "I need to get a coffee before I submit myself to the mall."

In my life I probably could never had said anything better to get cheerleaders to agree with me. We all walked into the mall with coffees in hand. I knew that Jessica was stupid rich and I was really hoping she wouldn't want us to go to some Louis Vuitton type of shit.

"Let's keep this short and low budget, okay?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes and herded us into the Pink section at Victoria's Secret. I didn't have a lot of cash to spare after having done only one college application, so I walked into the store as if I were going to the dentist to get my teeth pulled out. But there was a sale, so I relaxed.

Ellen picked up a two piece with pineapple print. "I think I found the one for me."

Gigi cooed. "That is so cute! Definitely try it on."

I stood in the middle of the store, looking at all the pinks and purples and tiny triangles of fabric. I was definitely whelmed, of the over variety.

Jessica snapped her fingers. "Come with me, you need professional help."

I thought that by saying this she meant that she'd call an attendant, but instead she walked me through the racks and started picking stuff for me. "What are you doing?" I asked.

Without taking her eyes off of the little models she replied, "I'm helping, what do you think."

"But why?"

Her eyes finally snapped up. She did the scan thing again and smiled. "Because you really need it. And I just get a kick out of showing you how much better I am than you."

I folded my arms. "Is that it?"

She bent her wrist in a what can you do kind of way, and she looked at the ceiling as if asking the providence for guidance. "Look, I know what you're probably thinking. That I'm going to help you look somewhat decent to show Santiago how great friends we can be and get him on my side. Well, that's not going to happen."

"Damn right," I said under my breath.

She rolled her eyes. "I don't care what he thinks. He's cute and all but he's not playing along as he should. I don't have time to beg, not even him." She laughed a little at what undoubtedly must have been a pretty shell shocked look from me. "We had fun and I'm moving on, even though I'd really have liked to have a better taste."

"Okay, first of all, ew." I lifted one finger and then a second one. "Second, why are you telling me this? And third, why are you helping, then?"

"Because I'm bored and because I saw your underwear yesterday and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't help another woman in need, even if it's you."

I leaned back to give her a better look. "Are you... being nice?"

She slammed like ten different swimsuits into my chest. "Shut up and try these on."

It might have been the combination of little sleep, lot of caffeine and shock that I went into a dressing room without even looking at what she'd given me. I dropped my bag on the floor, still replaying that strange conversation and feeling a nasty dose of vindication that she'd given up. And then I wondered if it was because even Jessica Ashford was not enough to catch his eye, and I saw myself in the mirror and winced. He did say that he'd just been fooling around with her, but...

Then I saw the first bikini on the pile and I gasped.

"I can't wear this!" I screamed to nobody in particular. It was black and strappy and looked more like lingerie.

"Why not?" she said from the other side of the door, making me jump. "You really need to get used to wearing a little less so that you can get a lot more action than you're getting right now."

I almost wailed. "I don't have the body to pull this off."

Jessica snorted. "I'll be the judge."

The fact that she was even giving me credit and not agreeing right away was terrifying. I asked if I had to do this, and she said yes.

I steeled myself. "On one condition." When she asked what it was I opened the door and extended my hand. "Give me your phone, or phones, however many rich people have. There will be no pictures of this."

She rolled her eyes but gave me her entire purse. "Here you go, I'm not interested in taking weird pictures of minors."

That was a good point. "Then don't you think wearing this stuff is too much?"

"We're minors, not nuns." She closed the door. "Now, change."

It almost sounded like a magical spell, as if she expected to close the door, open it again and I'd be brand new. But it took me a couple of minutes to get out of my clothes and put on the first black bikini. It was the right size, but I still had a feeling like I was spilling everywhere. At least my bruise had faded until it was barely noticeable.

"This is terrible," I said.

"Shut up and open the door."

I did, slowly. Hunching over a little bit to try to hide my sensitive bits. She didn't say anything at first, just tilted her head a little for a better look at my boobs.

"Not a bad canvas but not the right suit. Turn around."

I turned. "Was that a compliment?"

"Put on the pastel pink one."

I scratched my arm. "Doesn't pink wash out redheads?"

She rolled her eyes. "Look, this is my domain and it's best if you just do as I say."

Fine. So I closed the door again and changed. This one was pastel pink and had tiny Pink letters in white all over the edges. From faraway it was barely noticeable. Cute, but I worried it'd make me look naked. I put it on and even though I didn't feel like I was going to flash anybody by accident, I still couldn't shake off the feeling that I was wearing nothing.

I opened the door and found that Ellen had joined, wearing the pineapple bikini, and that Gigi was wearing an orange one that looked like it'd been twisted at the front. It emphasized the valley between her boobs and showed off her tan.

All three of them stared at me.

Jessica snapped her fingers. "My job here is done."

"Oh my God, Pey," Ellen said. "You look like a girl."

"That is so perfect. I can't believe that shade works so well with your skin tone." Gigi walked up to me and grabbed my braid. "All you need to do is let your hair down and flaunt it, girl."

"Won't it get wet and soapy?"

She giggled. "Exactly, that's sexy."

Some fifty odd bucks later I was the proud owner of a terrifying piece of clothing.

"Now," Ellen said as we all walked out of the mall with little bags in our hands. "All we have left to do is post fliers and hope at least half of the school shows up."

Gigi smiled and there was something almost malicious behind it. "Leave it to us, we got this covered."